Samsung Biologics breaks $22b cumulative order barrier

European contract pushes cumulative orders close to 30 trillion won, securing three years of revenue in advance

Total capacity of 845,000 liters cements world No. 1 status, widening gap over Lonza and rivals

Rockville facility online, peptide push underway as next-generation expansion accelerates

Samsung Biologics' Plant 4. [Samsung Biologics]

Samsung Biologics has reached another landmark in the global contract manufacturing market. A new CMO agreement with a European pharmaceutical company pushed the company's cumulative order total — measured by the minimum take-or-pay (MTOP) guarantee — past $22 billion, approaching 30 trillion won.

The milestone comes 13 years after the company won its first contract with US drugmaker Bristol Myers Squibb when Plant 1 began operation in 2013, and 15 years after Samsung Biologics was founded. The achievement marks its transformation from a startup with no track record into an indispensable production partner for the world's leading pharmaceutical companies.

According to DART, Samsung Biologics signed a pharmaceutical CMO contract with a European pharmaceutical company Friday worth 93.48 billion won ($68.8 million). The contract runs through Dec. 31, 2031.

With this agreement, Samsung Biologics' cumulative order total reached $22.02 billion.

Inside a Samsung Biologics factory, home to the world's largest biopharmaceutical production facility. [Samsung Biologics]

From first BMS deal to $22 billion: the payoff of lock-in and the snowball effect

Samsung Biologics' crossing of the $22 billion cumulative order threshold symbolizes the qualitative evolution of Korea's CMO industry, built from scratch over 15 years.

The pivotal moment came in July 2013, when the company signed its first commercial production contract with global drugmaker BMS. Still a fledgling contract manufacturer at the time, Samsung Biologics demonstrated the strong operational capabilities of Plant 1 and expanded its partnership with BMS the following year — a development that set off a chain of orders from major global pharmaceutical companies.

The quality reputation built over 13 years since that first contract has translated into a powerful lock-in effect. Long-term agreements typically spanning five to ten years, combined with legally guaranteed MTOP provisions, have maximized earnings stability and predictability. When potential pipeline volume that could grow with clients' product development successes is factored in, the actual pipeline already far exceeds $24 billion.

The scale of secured work is equally striking. Even after subtracting $11.77 billion already delivered as of the end of the first half, the remaining order backlog stands at around $10 billion on an MTOP basis — confirmed work already worth more than three times last year's annual sales of 4.56 trillion won.

Particularly noteworthy is the growing visibility of a snowball effect. Beyond attracting new clients, existing big-pharma customers including BMS have repeatedly amended contracts to increase volumes at the commercialization stage. This year alone, a contract with a European client was raised from 279.6 billion won to 400.7 billion won, illustrating a virtuous cycle in which existing customers entrust the company with ever-larger workloads.

Samsung Biologics' biopharmaceutical production facility in Rockville, Maryland. [Samsung Biologics]

845,000-liter capacity leaves Lonza and Fujifilm far behind

Behind this order-winning streak lies an economy of scale built through bold, preemptive investment in production infrastructure.

Starting with Plant 1's modest 30,000-liter capacity at the time of the BMS contract, Samsung Biologics successively completed Plant 2 (155,000 liters), Plant 3 (180,000 liters) and Plant 4 (240,000 liters), repeatedly setting new world records for the largest single plant. The completion of Plant 5 (180,000 liters) in the first half of 2025, followed by the acquisition of a production facility in Rockville, Maryland (60,000 liters) in March 2026, brought total capacity to 845,000 liters — a commanding lead over global rivals.

Among global CDMO companies with large-scale commercial production capacity exceeding 300,000 liters, Switzerland's Lonza stands at approximately 741,000 liters, Japan's Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies — which is aggressively expanding its facilities — at around 260,000 liters, and China's Wuxi Biologics at roughly 305,000 liters.

Samsung Biologics has extended its lead over second-ranked Lonza by more than 100,000 liters, firmly cementing its position as the world's No. 1 production leader.

A rendering of Samsung Biologics' Third Bio Campus. [Samsung Biologics]

Expansion continues beyond world No. 1: Rockville acquisition followed by peptide push

Even after securing the top spot in global production capacity, Samsung Biologics shows no sign of slowing its expansion. The company is accelerating the diversification of its production base and the broadening of its next-generation modality portfolio to get ahead of structural market shifts and geopolitical uncertainty.

The Rockville facility, whose acquisition was completed in March, carries particular symbolic weight as the company's first overseas production base. With risks from the Donald Trump administration's trade policies — including Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act — and pharmaceutical tariffs coming into sharper focus, securing local US production capacity in advance gives Samsung Biologics a buffer to respond immediately to reshoring demand from global clients.

Portfolio diversification is also advancing rapidly. Following the launch of a dedicated antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) production facility in 2025, the company is moving quickly to build out a finished drug product (DP) line. Samsung Biologics has also resolved to acquire PolyPeptide Group, a Swiss peptide CDMO specialist, in a move that instantly extends its reach into the market for key ingredients used in GLP-1 obesity and diabetes treatments — one of the most fiercely contested arenas in pharmaceuticals and biotech today.

Expansion at its domestic production base continues as well. The company is pressing ahead with preparations to complete a sixth plant with 180,000 liters of capacity at its Second Bio Campus in Songdo by 2029.

Samsung Biologics, which set out in 2013 by partnering with its first client BMS, is now opening the next 15 years of growth — evolving beyond large-scale monoclonal antibody production into a global full-service CDMO encompassing antibodies, ADCs and peptides.

silverpaper@heraldcorp.com